Slice of Life A to Z

I'm not trying to ditch February, but the March Slice of Life Story Challenge hosted by Stacey Shubitz and Ruth Ayres of  Two Writing Teachers is right around the corner. Essentially, to  meet the challenge you blog everyday for the month of March and link your blog "slices" to the challenge's main page on Two Writing Teachers. You can read more about it here. Last year I participated for the first time. Unlike other challenges (like the 365 photo challenge) I made it the month. It was so fun that I did a mini-challenge with students and have kept slicing on Tuesdays. 

Last week AmandaCornwell guest posted "Ten Tips for Creating an Electronic SOLSC for Students" on Two Writing Teachers and my friend,  Beth Scanlon, is drafting a guest post about slicing with students too. Others in the writing community (like Margaret's tips list at Reflections on the Teche and Terje's big list of topics at Just for a Month) are blogging tips to get started as well. All of this anticipation got me thinking.

So I played around with an A to Z list.  As I listed, I realized I was imagining how I can frame the challenge for my students. See what you think (It's a little long... that's what happens when you're home sick, but thankfully getting better and feeling bored). I may just use my list as part of our SOLSC kick off. 

A: anticipate, amaze, acknowledge, astound

Anticipate writing topics. Watch for what amazes and astounds you. Acknowledge it.

B: be, brave, broadcast

Be on the lookout for writing topics. Brave the challenge of writing every day. Think of it as a broadcast—what will your headlines say for the day?

C: create, comment, celebrate, community, color

Don’t let your inner-critic color your creative process. The Slice of Life Story Challenge is about celebrating life’s moments and commenting in order to connect and build community with fellow writers.

D: discover, deepen, draw, design, diagram

Writing is discovery. Drawing from your experience and beliefs, it deepens your connections to the world and helps you design and diagram your future self.

E: engage, envelope, elucidate

Engage in the process. Let it envelope you and elucidate your thinking.

F: flahoolick, fun, fierce, finger

Writing can be flahoolick—open-hearted, generous, fun—but it can also be fierce, close-to-the bone truths that you are driven to finger.

G: gift, give, generous, grateful, good

Think of the Slice of Life Story Challenge as a gift, a gift of community, a gift of generosity. There is a spirit of community good that develops as we work and write together. Enjoy that. Be grateful for the good writing days.

H: heed, hope, honest, heart

Heed the fleeting idea. When something comes to you, jot it down. Watch for hope. Write with honesty and an open heart.

I: imagine, illustrate, images

Imagine. Just do it. Picture your dream (car, job, classroom, trip, outfit, cell phone, you name it). Then illustrate it—use words to build images in readers’ imaginations.

J: juggle, jive, jilt

Life happens. People get sick. We all get busy. Saying you do not have time to write is a just jive talk. No excuses. Juggle what you need to do. Don’t jilt the writing.

K: know, knead

Knead your ideas. Work them over in your mind until they feel loose, warm and elastic like a loaf of bread ready to rise. Then you’ll know what to write.

L: learn, laugh, loathe, linger, love

We can’t help but learn from writing together. There will be slices you love, slices you linger over, slices that make you laugh and slices you loathe.

M: model, mentor, make

Find a model or a mentor text. It could be a poem, a short story lead, an opinion piece, a commercial script. Find what you like and try and make it your own.

N: narrate, noodle

When you noodle around you improvise. Often your slice writing will be first-draft noodling around. Narrate. Tell us your story and how you got there.

O: ogle, open, olio

Keep your eyes and hearts open. What do you ogle? Compile an olio—a miscellany—use that one day.

P: ponder, peruse, persuade, photograph, puzzle, paint, paragraphs

Writing is thinking made visible. Ponder, peruse, persuade, puzzle out what’s been taking up your thoughts lately. Paint pictures with your words or use photographs alongside your paragraphs.

Q: question, quicken

Questions quicken curiosity. Capitalize on that.

R: read, respond, revise, rewrite

Read your posts aloud before your publish them. That will help you see if there are places you need to revise or rewrite. It will also give you a sense of how readers will respond to the “sound” of the writing.

S: say, state, smile, suggest, sketch, sing

We all have something to say. State your piece. Your readers (or the slices you read) might also suggest topics you can sketch out. Make your writing sing and smile.

T: tinker, tip, toast

Tinker with something new: a new form, a new genre, a new word. You’ll find plenty of slicing tips in the writing community and we will all toast our success at the end of the challenge.

U: uncover, understand

Writing uncovers. It reveals and helps us understand the world and people in it. Use that power.

V: vent, vow, view, vociferous.

Occasionally you will find yourself wanting to vent. You will vow vociferously. View it as it is. Don’t veer too far from the course. Don’t get mired in negativity.

W: write, welcome, weave, wonder

Write, write and write some more. Weave welcome and wonder into your daily slices in order to grow as a writing and in community with others.

X: xray, Xerox

Use writing to xray a topic—dig beneath it’s surface and examine the structures beneath. Or Xerox it, copy it, imitate it, apprentice yourself to a writer you admire and try on their style or syntax.

Y: yawlp, yearn

Like Walt Whitman we have that barbaric yawlp within us that yearns to be heard. Let it out.

Z: zap, zing, zoom

Zap your inner-writer into action. Try out a few zinger endings. Zoom in on what matters in your life. Write away!